By Emman Ovuakporie & Johnbosco Agbakwuru

MEMBERS of the House of Representatives are disturbed that a good number of the 469 seats in the National Assembly are vacant on account of pending re-run elections in Rivers, Anambra and other states.

INEC boss, Mahmood Yakubu

Consequently, the lawmakers want the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to as a matter of urgency conduct the re-run polls to address what they described as under-representation in the National Assembly.

Towards this end, the House, in plenary, yesterday, mandated its Committees on Legislative Compliance and Electoral Matters to ensure compliance with the House resolution of June 23, 2016, as applicable, and that INEC concludes all elections in Rivers State and revert to the House within two weeks, with a confirmed date for the elections.

Both committees are expected to report back to the House within two weeks for more legislative input.

This was sequel to a motion under matters of national importance entitled: ‘Urgent Need For INEC To Conclude Elections In The Country Immediately and Safeguard Our Democracy,’’ promoted by Reps Leo Ogor, Kingsley Chinda, Betty Appiafi, Ken Chikere, Blessing Nsiegbe and Prince Uche Nnam Obi.

Ogor, who led the lawmakers in the debate, noted that the incidence of postponed re-run elections in Nigeria, particularly in Rivers State is disturbing.

He expressed concern that “the continuous and persistent denial of conducting re-runs in such affected constituencies deny the constituents of their constitutionally guaranteed right to representation at the National and State Assemblies.

He said: “The following provisions in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN), 1999 (as amended), namely: S.48 which provides that the Senate shall consist of three Senators from each State and one from the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja; ‘’S.49 which provides that subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the House of Representatives shall consist of three Hundred and sixty members representing constituencies of nearly equal population as far as possible, provided that no constituency shall fall within more than one state.’’ He explained that “the above constitutional provisions are mandatory, thus failure to comply with any of them is unconstitutional.

He said: “The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is set up under S.153 (1) (f) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN), 1999 (as amended), and has power under paragraph 15(a) of Part I, of the third schedule to the CFRN to among other things: “organize, undertake and supervise all elections to the offices of the President and Vice-President, the Governor and Deputy Governor of a State, and to the membership of the Senate, the House of Representatives and the House of Assembly of each State of the Federation”.

“In the case of Rivers State, the Court of Appeal in December 2015 ordered that re-run elections be conducted within 60 days, but INEC has since consistently failed, neglected and/or refused to do so; apart from the one it conducted on March 19, 2016 in only four out of 12 federal (and few state) constituencies that re-run elections were ordered in December 2015.’’

The minority leader also noted that” in March 2015, INEC under Professor Attahiru Jega successfully conducted peaceful elections in Borno and other North-East states that were then faced with crisis caused by the activities of Boko Haram; yet the present leadership of INEC has consistently neglected, failed and/or refused to conduct elections in only about eight Local Governments of Rivers State, citing security concerns.

Ogor
He however expressed worry that “almost all states of the Federation are adequately represented in Parliament in compliance with SS. 48, 49 and 91 CFRN, 1999, Rivers State continues to be unrepresented (particularly in the Senate where it has no Senator) due to INEC’s deliberate neglect, refusal and/or failure to conduct outstanding elections in the state.

Security in the states
“INEC’s action is a clear case of injustice being meted to Rivers State and her people, as they have being denied the right to participate in critical national issues that have come up at the National Assembly, including National Appropriations.’’

Concluding his debate Ogor stressed: “The excuse that the electoral body has been repeating is that there is no security in the states and the people of the states have been denied their rights to have a say on national issues. Some of those states have no senator and in most cases no lawmaker representing their constituencies even in the state assembly.’’

Contributing, the Majority Leader, Rep Femi Gbajabiamila, APC, Surulere Federal Constituency, Lagos, spoke almost in the same vein calling on the electoral body to conduct the re-run elections immediately in the affected states.

He explained that ”everybody has the right to vote as this could be a pointer to what will happen in 2019. As it is now, the National Assembly is under represented. At this point, the presiding officer, Yakubu Dogara pointed out to his colleagues that “there is no need to continue the debate as both leaders had made their points very clear on the issue.’’

When the issue was put to a voice vote, the ayes carried the day.

The motion was seconded by Rep Tajudeen Yusuf, PDP, Kogi.